COP15 has come and gone… leaving behind a bad taste for some and a grain of hope for the others.  But no matter which of those two groups you belong to, outside of your window the movement toward more sustainable world continues.

The Information Technology is only one area of industry that is in full focus right now in the US. Just recently, the government and private sectors announced a $115 million dollars investment into 14 IT projects that would work on improvement of energy efficiency in the following areas:

• IT equipment
• Software
• Power supply chain and cooling

IT equipment and software projects will focus on servers and networking devices and how they can be optimized in order to be more energy efficient. Power supply chain projects will look at how to “minimize power loss and heat generation that occurs in server-based IT systems.” The cooling projects will focus on improvement of cooling equipment in order to use less energy.

From $115 million claimed, $47 million is coming from the U.S. Department of Energy. The following is a breakdown of how the funds will be distributed among IT companies based on their areas of specialty:

Funding for IT equipment and software projects will go to:

• SeaMicro Inc. – $9.3 million
• IBM T.J. Watson Research Center - $1.6 million
• Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs – $300,000
• California Institute of Technology – $300,000

Funding for power supply chain projects will go to:

• Hewlett-Packard Company – $7.4 million
• Power Assure, Inc – $5 million
• Columbia University – $2.8 million
• Lineage Power Corporation – $2.4 million
• BAE Systems – $222,000

Funding for cooling projects will go to:

• Yahoo! Inc. – $9.9 million
• Edison Materials Technology Center – $2.8 million
• IBM T.J. Watson Research Center – $2.3 million
• Alcatel-Lucent – $1.8 million
• Federspiel Controls, Inc. – $584,000

So if you, like so many, feel that the Copenhagen summit took away our last hope for change – think again. The only reason we didn’t reach the new treaty is because the countries couldn’t agree on the financial and legislative commitment toward each other at this time. But, that doesn’t mean that the commitments don’t exist on the national level, as we can see with the US – they just need to be re-thought and re-engineered in order to fit into the international level, as well. Once countries are clear on what they can do inside their own borders, they will become clearer on what they can offer between international borders, as well.

So, let’s just keep going.

Contrary to iconic images of smokestacks and sooty factories, the world’s complex computer infrastructure is fast becoming one of the greatest carbon emitters. By 2020, global IT will reach about 3 percent of carbon emissions, accounting for “1.54 metric gigatons, or twice what the United Kingdom produces today,” according McKinsey & Co.

Where is this intense energy consumption and carbon emission coming from? Look to everything from your home computer and cell phone to the vast telecommunications networks and data centers that make the Internet work.

In the coming years, technology will work its way into more parts of our lives, making the possibility of turning back our insatiable demand unlikely. Fortunately, with this demand are great economic opportunities—by optimizing our use of technology, we can find efficiencies, cutting as much as 7.8 metric gigatons a year, McKinsey reported.

Companies like AT&T, a Fleishman-Hillard client, are looking forward and creating partnerships with energy providers to begin roll out of smart grids, where energy usage can be efficiently monitored and delivered.

Other tech innovators like Microsoft and Google are bringing energy savings to the world of cloud computing—creating remote systems that can grow and shrink computing power depending on need, conserving energy.

While innovative small and large companies will help lead us into a more efficient and sustainable future, regular users of technology can do their part. Check out this great podcast from Northwestern University for tips on how you can green your tech experience.